Speech recognition is the computer implemented conversion of electrical signals representative of spoken words into text characters, e.g., words, which can be stored and/or outputted or otherwise rendered on a display. Speech recognition applications include voice user interfaces such as voice dialing (e.g. “Call home”), call routing (e.g. “I would like to make a collect call”), domestic appliance control, search (e.g. find a podcast where particular words were spoken), simple data entry (e.g., entering a credit card number), preparation of structured documents (e.g. a radiology report), and speech-to-text processing (e.g., word processors or emails).